Please help find a cure for Type I Diabetes!! Hey family and friends,

Just thought I'd send a friendly reminder that I'm still accepting donations for the October 28th walk for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. If you want to sponsor me in my Walk, you may send a check, and make it out to JDRF. Any amount would be welcome. You can also visit my personal Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close I am to reaching my personal goal: JDRF.org Particularly interesting is the research that is currently being done on the artificial pancreas and islet cell transplantation.

As some of you may know, Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease, which for the most part has many theories but not a single defined cause. Auto-immune basically means that there is abnormal response in the body causing certain unfavorable reactions to take place against itself. In the case of Type 1 diabetes, the body destroys the cells in the pancreas which produce insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. This ultimately renders the pancreas useless in helping to regulate a person's blood sugar, and the short- and long-term effects of Type 1 diabetes (as a result of poor blood sugar control) are devastating. They include kidney failure resulting in the need for dialysis, nerve damange leading to amputations, eye disease and blindness, and even death. This can happen in people as young as 18 years of age!

There are millions of stories, and millions of faces and names. I could go on forever, but I won't. It's just a little food for thought for you all.

Thanks so much for helping to support this great cause; I truly believe we may see a cure for this disease in our lifetime, if not, some major advances in treatment options.

Kindest regards,
Aiden Ian Marsh  ¶ 10/06/2006 08:34:00 AM